Frustration and Determination
by arinhel.melleide
Summary: 'Gareth took a long sip of his drink. Opened his mouth, then closed it again. Sighing, he took another sip, and his hand slipped off the back of the couch to fall on her shoulder…"You remember about my sister?" He said after another moment of opening and closing his mouth.'


_A/N: I started writing while I was sitting in the boarding area waiting for my plane (but then didn't really work on it the entire two weeks I was away, cursed family)._

 _Anyway, this is in response to a post I saw on Tumblr (I think it was on Tumblr, it was a while ago) about the lack of discussion/mention of Gareth's autistic sister. Thus this idea was born! I apologize if anything in inaccurate. Feel free to call me out on it and I will work to fix it immediately._

 _I do not own, nor shall I ever own CBS's_ BrainDead _, there would be a LOT more of Aaron Tveit's face if I did...and he would actually sing..._

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Laurel was concentrating on cutting just the chicken—not her fingers—when there was a loud thud on her apartment door. Her grip tightened on the large, and very sharp, kitchen knife as she slowly turned to face the door.

"Laurel?" Came a familiar voice from the other side of the door. Laurel breathed out a sigh of relief,

"Yeah, give me sec." She put down the knife, and opened the door. "Hey, Gareth, I wasn't expect—"

An extremely tired and frustrated Gareth practically fell into her arms—it had been his head hitting the door that thudded. His arms latched around her and he buried his face in her shoulder. Laurel was stunned at this immediate affection, but she reacted after a moment. Shutting the door, she wrapped her arms around him in return. He spoke after about minute of just holding her.

"Hey." It was muffled, and he buried his face even more deeply into her shoulder.

"Hi." She replied softly, with a confused lilt. "What happened?" He sighed, slowly pulled away from her, and lightly kissed her neck as he did.

"I'm gonna need a drink first. You got the makings for an Old-Fashioned?" His mouth quirked just a bit at the corner, but Laurel could see that it didn't really reach his eyes.

She said she would make one for each of them and told him to go sit and wait on the couch. He smiled gratefully back at her, finally letting go.

The exhaustion and frustration were written in every line of his body as Gareth walked over to collapse onto her couch. He leaned his head back, eyes closed for a moment as he let out a tired sigh and covered his face with his hands. Laurel stood watching him for another moment, before finally moving get started on their drinks. Making her own Old-fashioned was the only reason she had so many oranges in her apartment.

"So," She began after she dropped the orange slice in his drink and handed it to him. "I wasn't expecting you to be coming at all today, you seemed really busy when I came up at lunch. What happened?" She sat down next to him, pulling her legs under her as she did so.

Gareth took a long sip of his drink. Opened his mouth, then closed it again. Sighing, he took another sip, and his hand slipped off the back of the couch to fall on her shoulder. Not planned, but definitely not unpleasant. Especially when his thumb started to rub absentminded circles on the skin bared by her sleeveless blouse. Laurel sipped at her drink to hide the color that was coming to her cheeks.

"You remember about my sister?" He said after another moment of opening and closing his mouth.

"She's autistic, right?"

"Yeah, well, her interest has always been computers. She's actually got a really nice job working IT for a law firm in Baltimore." He got this proud look as he stared off into space. It was a look Laurel hadn't ever seen before, and it gave her a warm feeling. "Problem is she doesn't act like what people think autistic people act like. She maintains eye contact most of the time, she doesn't always flinch away from touch, unless it's someone she really doesn't know at all. Because of that, she gets a fair amount of… attention that she doesn't know how to handle." He trailed off, turning to look at Laurel as she shifted to do the same.

"Like, attention in the form of people flirting with her because she's your sister and is therefore gorgeous?" She was trying to lighten the mood and Gareth caught it for a moment, a small smile at the corner of his mouth. His face fell, though, a short moment later and he gulped at his Old-fashioned.

"Yeah, and you know how when you get flirted at, you know how to handle yourself? How to react to the attention you're getting, maybe flattered even."

"Unless they're a belligerent, asshole. Then I tell them that my brother is the democratic senator for Maryland and my boyfriend is the Chief-of-Staff for the republican senator for Maryland, and watch them squirm." Success! He smiled and even chuckled at that.

"Yes, or you can dig your pointy heels into their foot." His face fell again a second later. "Well, Jeanne can't. She has no capacity for interacting with people in that way. She can talk to family, a few friends, but she has no idea what to do with romantic or sexual interest, of any kind." His shoulders started tensing up, the frustration and anger rolling off of him in waves.

He finished off his Old-fashioned, and pointedly looked at hers, which she handed right over. She let him sit in silence for a while, gather his thoughts, but she had never been a very patient person.

"I'm assuming something happened with your sister for you to be bringing this up?" He nodded, knocking back the last of Laurel's drink as well.

"Well, she called me today, and turns out that the law firm she works at is pressing charges on her, and demanding that she be put in a psychiatric hospital." He said it so matter-of-factly that Laurel didn't fully comprehend what he had just said. So she asked him to repeat it. He did.

"What for?!" She was surprised at how invested she was in this girl she had never met. But seeing how much Gareth clearly cared about her endeared her to Laurel already.

"According to the firm, she attacked one of the partners." She just looked at him, incredulous. "Yeah, I don't believe it either. Jeanne said he cornered her on her way out of the server room. She tried to get away and accidentally pushed him. He must have tripped over a cable and hit his head on one of the servers."

"How bad we talking? Like, he's got a lump on his head, and he'll be fine? Or the serious kind where he has a concussion or worse?"

"She didn't stay to find out. She panicked and she only knew that he had hit head when she came in the next day." Laurel saw his grip on the glass turn white-knuckled, and he was staring at it like he wanted to chuck it at someone. "He's a senior partner in the law firm and she's the autistic, IT girl." He heaved a sigh and put the glass down on the table. "My sister is gonna be in a psych hospital for the rest of her life."

Seeing Gareth so frustrated and defeated unsettled Laurel. He was always so collected and determined, in almost any situation. Even when she dragged him into Salami Sex, and then everything with the bugs, he had taken it all in stride. She knew there were no words she could say at that moment to make him feel better, so she leaned into him, and rested her head on his shoulder.

When she asked, Gareth said Red had been unable—read unwilling—to help his sister, saying it wasn't his place to interfere. Laurel knew it was the bugs fault, and that Red had been increasingly unstable lately.

"Do you want me to talk to my brother? I know he'd be willing to-"

"No," he cut her off. "Please don't do that. I don't want you to get mixed up in this. You have enough on your plate as is, not to mention Red is already out to get you." He said it so sincerely that Laurel was taken aback for a moment. There was genuine concern in those blue, blue eyes of his.

"Okay." She assented, still a little in shock at the display of emotion. He pulled her onto his lap and buried his face in her neck again.

"I just want to not have to think for a little while." Laurel smiled, running her fingers through his hair as she felt him relax little bit.

"I believe I can assist you in that endeavor." She pulled his face up to her own and kissed him.

She woke up early the next morning, curled into Gareth's side on her bed. Laurel lay there for a moment, drinking in the sound of his heartbeat under her ear, and the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. It was their day off so she didn't feel in any rush to actually get up nad disturb their moment of peace, which were increasingly rare.

"I'm sorry about last night." She looked up to see Gareth staring at her with a guilty expression. "I just needed someone to talk to and be there for me. I don't want you to feel used or anything."

"You don't need to apologize for anything. I'm glad you came to me." She shifted onto her elbows so she could give him a kiss on his cheek. He turned his head just as she moved and caught her lips in a true kiss. She was a little surprised, but swiftly returned the sentiment.

"Thank you." He said as he pulled away, a soft expression in his blue eyes as he looked down at her. After that, Laurel was absolutely determined to talk to her brother about the whole thing the next day. Today was strictly for making Gareth feel better.

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 _Hope you like it! Good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Let me know :)_


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